Tuesday, 31 March 2015

We’ve been quite service–minded for the last few days, so here’s a final thought. The doing–it bit. Now, we don’t want to give you a guilt trip. Nor do we want to skirt around the edges of what it looks like to take God’s ‘care–for–everyone–regardless’ love to a world that needs it. You see, service (as you might have gathered from the past few readings) is definitely an active thing. But it’s up to each one of us to recognise it for ourselves, and be ready to put our effort in. It’s far too easy to get into such a day–in–day–out routine of predictable, comfortable living that we forget that God is willing to use us in world–shaking ways. The challenge is found here: ‘Whenever we have the opportunity, we have to do what is good.’ (Galatians 6:10 GWT) And sometimes, those (big but seemingly small) opportunities will come when we really aren’t expecting it. We’ve just got to keep an eye out for the opportunities, and a free hand to be able to take them. So, the ‘serve one another’ part of today’s verse is a bigger challenge than meets the eye: it needs us to be ready for that thought–poke from God that could change the course of your day/week/month. Leaving your schedule closed to spontaneous initiative will result in gathering boring, spiritually dry dust. Been meaning to call a friend or help out somewhere for a while? Been procrastinating about getting something worthwhile done? Now’s the time to shake off the dust and do it. You will not regret it!

SoulFood: Jer 22-24; Luke 22:63-71; Ps 31; Pro 8:34-36

word4U2day (an adaptation of The Word for Today authored by Bob & Debby Gass) is published under licence by UCB Australia. 2015 UCB International Ltd